I’ll admit, I haven’t seen too many game controllers look like this. Designed pretty much on a whim by Alban Contrepois, the ONO manages to compact all your conventional controls into something truly compact and pocket-ready. The ONO packs a D-Pad (of sorts), two joysticks, action buttons, and shoulder buttons into a form factor barely the size of your average phone.
And in doing so, it sort of eschews that traditional game controller design. You don’t NEED hyper-ergonomic controllers for good, casual gaming. All you do is the controls itself, packed within a form factor that’s rounded enough to squarely sit in your palms without causing fatigue. And the ONO does that fairly well.
Designer: Alban Contrepois
Even though conceptual (and the designer lets you even download the 3D file for free jus tin case you want to print and build your own DIY controller), the ONO is adorably fascinating. It has the compact appeal of the SNES controller, albeit modernized for today’s day and age. Unlike the SNES, it packs two joysticks too. It’s designed to be platform agnostic, which is why the action buttons come with obscure quadrilaterals on them rather than letters or shapes like the PS or Xbox controllers, this means seamless use across a variety of platforms, from mobile gaming to console gaming, to even probably gaming on platforms like Apple Arcade (remember that?)
“ONO is a fictional object — a controller that was never built, never used, yet strangely familiar,” says designer Alban Contrepois. “Designed to be felt rather than played, it lives somewhere between memory and matter. Inspired by industrial aesthetics, soft-touch textures, and imagined futures, ONO explores tactile silence, emotional surfaces, and the poetry of fictional hardware. A contemplative artifact, frozen in time.”
The controller boasts this frosted metallic finish that seems fairly different from the regular plastic-based designs we see on most controllers. It gives the controller a slightly serious demeanor, which feels necessary given its size. The controls are all accessible and designed ergonomically. The result is a device small enough to chuck right into your bag along with your Steam Deck or Switch 2, or even your iPad. Anyone who wants to tinker with the 3D files, they’re available for free on Gumroad.
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